Control circuit with automatic DC offset

ABSTRACT

An automatic gain control circuit in the feedback path for a laser wavelength control circuit is described herein. This gain control circuit automatically adjusts the amplification of the analog signals output from a photodetector array, where the array detects a fringe pattern created by a laser beam. Another feature of the preferred embodiment feedback circuit is the automatic setting of a DC offset voltage that compensates for errors in the feedback path and enables an accurate determination of a dark level signal in the fringe pattern signal. This dark level signal provides a reference for measuring the magnitude of the fringe pattern signal. Varying photodetector outputs may now be more accurately measured. The preferred embodiment feedback circuit also employs a very fast amplifier anti-saturation circuit using LED&#39;s connected in a clamp circuit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

Notice: More than one reissue application have been filed for thereissue of U.S. Pat. No. 6,282,218. The reissue applications areapplication Nos. 10/652,571 (the present application) and 11/519,241,all are divisional reissue applications of U.S. Pat. No. 6,282,218.

This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/780,865, filedJan. 9, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,514, entitled Laser WavelengthControl Circuit Having Automatic DC Offset And Gain Adjustment by StuartL. Anderson.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to laser control circuits and, in particular, tocontrol circuits for controlling the laser wavelength.

BACKGROUND

Lasers are used for many applications. In one example, lasers are usedin steppers for selectively exposing photoresist in a semiconductorwafer fabrication process. In such fabrication processes, the optics inthe stepper are designed for a particular wavelength of the laser. Thelaser wavelength may drift over time and, thus, some means is typicallyemployed to detect the wavelength of the laser and correct thewavelength as necessary.

In one type of feedback network used to detect and adjust the wavelengthof a laser, an etalon receives a portion of the emitted light from thelaser. The etalon creates an interference pattern having concentricbands of dark and light levels due to destructive and constructiveinterference by the laser light. The concentric bands surround a centerbright portion. The position of the bright center portion of theinterference pattern is used to determine wavelength to a relativelycoarse degree, such as to within 5 picometers (pm). The diameter of alight band is used to determine the wavelength of the laser to a finedegree, such as to within 0.01-0.03 pm. The width of a light band isused to determine the spectral width of the laser output. Theinterference pattern is usually referred to as a fringe pattern.

In order to measure the light levels in the fringe pattern, the fringepattern must be optically detected by a sensitive photodetector arrayand the resulting signal amplified. This signal usually contains errorsdue to manufacturing and temperature related variances in the componentsforming the feedback system. The amplified signal is then applied to ananalog-to-digital (A/D) converter. Since the analog signals applied tothe A/D converter have a relatively large dynamic range, the A/Dconverter must also have a large range, such as at least 12 bits ofquantization, in order to adequately resolve small signals as well aslarge signals. Such a wide-range A/D converter and the processingcircuits required to process this wide range are relatively expensive.

What is needed is a technique to lower the cost of the feedback path insuch a laser control system without losing accuracy in the measurementof the wavelength.

SUMMARY

An automatic gain control circuit in the feedback path for a laserwavelength control circuit is described herein. This gain controlcircuit automatically adjusts the amplification of the analog signalsoutput from a photodetector array, where the array detects a fringepattern created by a laser beam.

A microprocessor, or other suitable circuit, in he feedback pathdetermines a peak level of the fringe pattern signal and sets the gainof the amplifier so that the amplified peak signal, when converted by adownstream A/D converter, always results in a digital signal within aspecified upper output range of the A/D converter. Thus, the A/Cconverter can have a much smaller dynamic range (e.g., 8 bits) than A/Dconverters (e.g., 12 bits) used in feedback paths having fixed gains. Inthe preferred embodiment, the automatic gain adjustment reduces thedynamic range of the analog signals to one-twentieth of the unadjustedsignals, allowing the A/D converter range to be reduced by 4 bits. Byonly requiring a 1-byte A/D converter, downstream processing circuitscan also be reduced in size.

Another feature of the preferred embodiment feedback circuit is theautomatic setting of a DC offset voltage that compensates for errors inthe feedback path and enables an accurate determination of a dark levelsignal in the fringe pattern signal. This dark level signal provides areference for measuring the magnitude of the fringe pattern signal. Verysmall photodetector outputs may now be accurately measured. Errorscorrected by this DC offset voltage may be due to manufacturingvariances in the components as well as due to performance variations ofthe photodetector array and other components with temperature.

A microprocessor detects the minimum output by the A/D converter,assumes these minimum signals are dark level signals, and adjusts the DCoffset voltage for an upstream amplifier as necessary to ensure the darklevel signals output by the A/D converter are a predetermined value.

The preferred embodiment feedback circuit also employs a novel amplifieranti-saturation circuit. The center portion of the circular fringepattern is very bright compared with the surrounding fringe pattern. Asthe photodetector array is scanned to read the center portion of thefringe pattern, the high magnitude signal may saturate the sensitiveamplifier amplifying the photodetector array signals. Such saturationdistorts the falling edge of the center signal in the fringe pattern,crating an erroneous reading of the position of the center portion. Thiscreates error in the determination of the wavelength.

The distortion can also affect the determination of a dark levelreference signal. The preferred embodiment of the feedback circuitincorporates an extremely fast anti-saturation circuit for theamplifier. Anti-saturation circuits are known which use conventionaldiodes or zener diodes. Applicant has discovered that unexpected resultsare obtained by using light emitting diodes (LED's) as theanti-saturation diodes. Using these LED's results in a faster clampingreaction time for the amplifier to prevent the amplifier from going intosaturation. This faster reaction time allows the photodetector array tobe scanned at higher speeds.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A, 1B illustrates the preferred embodiment feedback circuit usedfor controlling the wavelength of a laser.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the pertinent process carried out by thefeedback circuit of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates an output of an A/D converter, whose highest outputlevel for fringe signals is caused to be within a specified upper rangeby an automatic gain adjustment circuit.

FIG. 4 provides additional detail of the automatic gain adjustmentcircuitry and the anti-saturation circuitry in the feedback circuit ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a graph of amplifier gain versus a 4-bit gain control signal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates the preferred embodiment of a feedback system 10 fora tunable laser 12 to adjust the wavelength of laser 12. The feedbacksystem 10 may also be used to detect the spectral width of the laserbeam. Laser 12, in one embodiment, is an ultraviolet excimer laser whichemits pulses of laser energy.

The steps in the flowchart of FIG. 2 will be identified as they apply toa description of the operation of the system of FIG. 1.

As laser 12 is being operated (step 1) in an application, such as in astepper for wafer fabrication, a portion of its emitted light isdirected to an etalon 16, or slits, or other conventional device whichproduces a fringe pattern 18 or other light pattern having light anddark areas (step 2). Further details regarding a suitable laser andoptical elements for impinging laser light upon an etalon, and otherbackground materials, may be found in the following patents assigned tothe present assignee and incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No.5,025,445, entitled System For, and Method of, Regulating the Wavelengthof a Light Beam, by Stuart Anderson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,877,entitled Temperature Compensation Method and Apparatus for Wave Metersand Tunable Lasers Controlled Thereby, by Richard Sandstrom et al.; U.S.Pat. No. 5,095,492, entitled Spectral Narrowing Technique, by RichardSandstrom; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,207, entitled Method and Apparatusfor Calibrating a Laser Wavelength Control Mechanism, by Igor Formenkov.

The laser light impinging on the etalon 16 generates a fringe pattern 18whose light intensities (and corresponding electrical signals generated)across a bisection of the fringe pattern 18 are shown by graph 20 inFIG. 1. Graph 20 shows a center signal 22 and a number of concentricfringe signals, such as signals 24 and 25, generally symmetrical aroundthe center of the fringe pattern 18. The diameters of the concentricfringe signals correspond to the wavelength of the light output fromlaser 12. The widths of each of the fringe signals correspond to thespectral width of the laser light at a particular wavelength. Themagnitudes of the fringe signals correspond to the energy in the laserpulse.

The feedback system 10 accurately converts the light levels in thefringe pattern 18 into digital signals for use by additional processingcircuitry, such as described in the above-mentioned patents, to controlthe wavelength of the tunable laser 12 and to detect various othercharacteristics of the laser beam. Laser 12 may be tuned mechanically,optically, or chemically (e.g., by controlling the mixture of gases inlaser 12), and the precise method used to tune the laser once anaccurate wavelength detection is made is not relevant to this invention.Further details regrading the creation of the fringe pattern isdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,445, previously mentioned.

A photodetector array (PDA) 30 detects (step 3) the light intensitylevels across fringe pattern 18 and converts the light intensity levelsinto analog signals. Suitable PDA's are well known and commerciallyavailable. In one embodiment, PDA 30 is a linear array of 1024photodiodes 32 formed on a single integrated circuit, where thephotodiode spacing is 25 microns. Any suitable photodetector device maybe used.

A PDA control circuit 34 may be conventional and provides clock signalsand other control signals to the PDA 30 and other devices. Itsconstruction may be obtained from application literature provided fromthe manufacturer of the PDA. The PDA control circuit 34 scans each ofthe photodiodes 32 at a clock frequency of about 2 MHz, allowing thefull 1024 array to be read in approximately 512 microseconds.

Laser 12 is typically a pulse-type laser which emits pulses of laserenergy. In one embodiment, laser 12 emits pulses at 1000 pulses persecond or greater. Ideally, the PDA 30 is fully scanned, and its outputevaluated for wavelength accuracy, for each pulse of laser 12.

As each photodiode 32 output is scanned, as analog signal correspondingto the light level impinging upon that photodiode 32 is applied to aninput terminal of amplifier 40.

The analog output of amplifier 40 for each photodiode signal is thenintegrated over a short period by integrator 44. Prior to a nextphotodiode 32 being accessed, integrator 44 is reset by a signal on line45 from the PDA control circuit 34.

At a particular time during the period of integration, the analog signaloutput by integrator 44 is sampled (step 4) and held by a sample andhold circuit 46. The PDA control circuit 34 generates a sample pulse online 47 shortly before the reset pulse to integrator 44 is generated.The analog output of the sample and hold circuit 46 ranges between 0 and5 volts in the preferred embodiment, and the sampling rate is at afrequency of approximately 2 MHz.

Although the components used to build the circuitry just described aremanufactured within a small tolerance (e.g., 1%), accumulated tolerancesand temperature related changes cause the dark level output of thesample and hold circuit 46 to have an error of about±0.4 volts. In otherwords, although the fringe pattern dark level reference voltage shouldideally be 0 volts, in actuality this dark level is only known to ±0.4volts. This is a significant error, since fringe signals havingamplitudes less than 0.4 volts may not even be detected. The PDA 30 isalso affected by temperature variations, and this also contributes tothe error at the output of the sample and hold circuit 46 for a dark PDAinput.

The following describes how the feedback system 10 automaticallygenerates a DC offset for offsetting the ±0.4 volt error output from thesample and hold circuit 46 and automatically sets the gain of thesubsequent amplifier stages to better enable the fringe pattern to beaccurately measured for adjusting the wavelength of laser 12.

The output of the sample and hold circuit 46 is applied to an invertinginput of a unity gain operational amplifier 50 (step 5). Identicalresistors R1 and R1A cause amplifier 50 to have a unity gain. A variableDC offset signal on line 52 is applied to the non-inverting input ofamplifier 50. The DC offset signal is set by the output of adigital-to-analog (D/A) converter 54, whose digital input is provided bya microprocessor 56. The analog output of the D/A converter 54 isdivided by resistors R2 and R3, which in the preferred embodiment are3.57K ohms and 1.4K ohms, respectively. The DC offset is controlled sothat the output of amplifier 50 is always 0.7 volts minus an error-freeoutput of the sample and hold circuit 46, with the ±0.4 volt erroreliminated as described below. Thus, a dark level input into PDA 30corresponds to 0.7 volts at the output of amplifier 50. Accordingly, theoutput of amplifier 50 contains essentially no error.

The variable output of the D/A converter 54 is under the control of afeedback circuit incorporating microprocessor 56. Microprocessor 56 isconnected to an output of an A/D converter 58 (step 6), which provides adigital, amplified representation of the light intensity level impingingon an accessed photodiode 32 in the PDA 30. Microprocessor 56 determinesthe minimum signal levels (i.e., the dark levels) on opposite sides ofthe center signal 22 of the fringe pattern 18 (step 7). This may beperformed in a number of ways. One way is by comparing successivesignals and selecting those signals which have the lowest value.However, in the preferred embodiment, the feedback system 10 detects thesignals from preselected photodiodes 32 known to receive a dark level.

In a typical arrangement, there is a relatively large gap between theedge of the center bright portion and the surrounding fringe portion.Therefore, a large number of photodiodes 32 on both sides of the centerbright portion do not receive any light. Typically, the width of thecenter signal 22 corresponds to about 20-50 of the photodiodes 32 nearthe middle of the PDA 30. The remainder of the fringe pattern isdetected by the last quarter of the PDA 30 at both ends of the PDA 30.The width of each fringe signal corresponds to about 3-4photodiodes 32.To obtain a reliable dark signal level, the digital signals associatedwith two predetermined adjacent photodiodes likely receiving a darkinput on one side of the center signal 22 are averaged together. Thesignal from two predetermined adjacent photodiodes likely receiving adark input on the other side of the center signal 22 are also averagedtogether. Since the center bright portion takes up such a small area inthe middle second of the PDA 30, at least one of the two groups ofphotodiodes will receive a dark input. The averaged signal that is thelowest is then used to represent the dark level reference signal. Thesignals from two photodiodes are averaged to compensate for variancesbetween photodiodes. Other methods of detecting a dark level may beperformed instead.

In the preferred embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, microprocessor 56 setsthe DC offset voltage (step 8) applied to amplifier 50 such that thedark level output of A/D converter 58 is a magnitude of 12 out of 256levels. This is around 5% of the A/D converter maximum range. This darklevel of 12 corresponds to a 0.7 volt output of amplifier 50. Anerror-free dark level of 12 was chosen, as opposed to 0, so thatmicroprocessor 56 can detect whether a dark signal applied to A/Dconverter 58 is too low.

Given that the output of the sample and hold circuit 46 ranges between 0and 5 volts, the output of the unity gain amplifier 50 now rangesbetween 0.7 volts and−4.3 volts, since the sample and hold signal isinverted by amplifier 50. Accordingly, a dark photodiode 32 level showsup as 0.7 volts at the output of amplifier 50.

Accurately setting the DC offset enables an increased gain by thesubsequent amplifier stage since errors are no longer amplified.

The next stage of the feedback system 10 provides an adjustableamplification gain of the output of amplifier 50 such that lower levelsignal are more amplified than higher level signals, but withoutexceeding a maximum level input into A/D converter 58. Thisamplification is performed by amplifier 60, connected to an output ofamplifier 50, having an input impedance being effectively resistors R4and R5 connected in parallel. Resistor R5 is a variable resistance aswill be described below. A feedback impedance of amplifier 60 is eitherresistor R7 or the parallel combination of resistor R7 and R8. In thepreferred embodiment, resistor R8 is one-fourth the value of resistorR7. Resistor R8 is switched into and out of the circuit by switch 64which, in one embodiment, is an MOS transistor controlled bymicroprocessor 56.

Approximating the input impedance of amplifier 60 as an open circuit andthe open loop gain of amplifier 60 as infinite, the gain of amplifier 60is approximately Z_(F)/Z_(in), where Z_(in) is the parallel combinationof resistors R4 and R5, and Z_(F) is the parallel combination of R7 andR8 (assuming R8 is placed in parallel by switch 64). In the preferredembodiment, resistor R5 is controlled to provide seven differentresistances or an open circuit, each causing the gain of amplifier 60 tobe incremented or decremented by a gain of 0.4, and switch 64 iscontrolled to increase the gain by 5 times when in an open state. In thepreferred embodiment, the gain of amplifier 60 is automaticallycontrolled by microprocessor 56 to be between 1 and 19 in variousincrements as will be described with respect to FIGS. 4 and 5.

The value of resistor RS and the controlling of switch 64 is performedby microprocessor 56 as follows. Microprocessor 56 continually monitorsthe digital output of the A/D converter 58. A/D converter 58 outputs adigital value for each photodiode 32 signal in the PDA 30. A pixel clock66 controls A/D converter 58 to synchronize the conversion by A/Dconverter 58 with a sampling of the photodiode 32 signals. The samepixel clock 66 is also provided to microprocessor 56. This pixel clock66 is generated by the PDA control circuit 34. A/D converter 58 outputseight bits so as to provide a range of between 0 and 255 quantizationlevels. Microprocessor 56 monitors the output of A/D converter 58 toinsure that a highest output level of amplifier 60 during scanning ofPDA 30, for other than the center signal 22, is greater than 50% butless than 100% of the maximum output level (i.e., 255) of A/D converter58 (step 9). This is illustrated in FIG. 3. Once the highest outputlevel of A/D converter 58 for these fringe signals is between 50% and100% of the A/D converter 58 maximum output level, no further adjustmentis made to the gain of amplifier 60 (step 10). The range of 50% to 100%was chosen based upon the relatively coarse increments selected for thegain adjustment of amplifier 60 and based upon the realization that ahighest output level of between 50% and 100% is sufficient foradequately measuring the characteristics of the fringe pattern 18.Other, more narrow, ranges may also be used.

This technique is an improvement over the gain being set manually usingtrimpots (i.e., potentiometers) since trimpots do not increase thedynamic range of the signal.

A voltage divider consisting of resistors R9 and R10 provides a DCoffset voltage of 0.7 volts to the non-inverting terminal of amplifier60 to offset the 0.7 volt dark level voltage output by amplifier 50.Hence, the output of amplifier 60 at node C continually forces thevoltage at node B to be 0.7 volts. For a dark level input at node A, nocurrent flows from node B and, therefore, node C will be at 0.7 volts.The gain of amplifier 60 does not affect this dark level voltage at nodeC.

The values of resistor R4, R7, R8, R9, R10 and the construction ofresistor R5 is found in FIG. 4.

The output of amplifier 60 is then applied to the A/D converter 58 viaresistor R11, which in the preferred embodiment is 49.9 ohms. The A/Dconverter 58 performs one conversion per photodiode 32 during a singlescan of the PDA 30 so as to provide two million samples per second. Ifthe automatic gain adjustment were not incorporated into the feedbacksystem 10, the A/D converter 58 would have to be at least four bitslarger to accommodate the full dynamic range of the PDA 30 output.

The particular A/D converter 58 used in the preferred embodiment has aninput range of 0.6 to 2.6 volts, where 0.6 volts corresponds to a 0digital output and 2.6 volts corresponds to a 255 digital output. A 0.7volt input at node C corresponds to 5% of the input range, equal to adigital output of 12. Thus, the particular circuit described withrespect of FIG. 1 converts the 0-5 volt range at the output of thesample and hold circuit 46 to the 0.6 to 2.6 volt range needed for A/Dconverter 58. The DC offset provided to amplifier 50 would be setaccordingly based on the dark level input needed to cause the A/Dconverter 58 to output a specified value for a dark level.

A novel anti-saturation circuit will not be described. As seen by thesimplified intensity level graph 20 in FIG. 1, the center signal 22 ismuch brighter than the surrounding fringe pattern 18. The peak of thecenter signal 22 is not used by any wavelength adjustment circuitry toadjust the wavelength of laser 12; only the relative position of thecenter signal 22 is used when determining wavelength. Thus, thedetection of the peak of the center signal 22 is not required. Thetransistors in amplifier 60 saturate when the input voltage attempts todrive the output of amplifier 60 beyond the power supply voltage of 5volts. If amplifier 60 were to saturate, the falling edge of the centersignal 22 would be distorted. This distortion would appear as anundershoot, where the output of amplifier 60 would correspond to asignal darker than a true dark level signal. When setting a referencefor the dark level, this undershoot may be misinterpreted as a darklevel signal. It is thus desirable that amplifier 60 amplify the fringesignals (not including center signal 22) so that the highest outputlevel of A/D converter 58 will be between 50% and 100% of its maximumoutput level of 255 without concern that the large magnitude centersignal 22 will saturate amplifier 60.

Common techniques for preventing saturation of an operational amplifierinclude placing one or more zener diodes or other conventional diodes inseries between the output of the amplifier and its inverting input so asto provide a predetermined voltage drop. Hence, when the output of theamplifier reaches a certain voltage level, any additional current getsfed back to the inverting input of the amplifier so as to clamp theoutput of the amplifier at a maximum level somewhere below the powersupply voltage.

In the preferred system of FIG. 1, the feedback system 10 operates at ahigh rate (2 MHz), and the switching delays of conventionanti-saturation diodes prove to be a speed bottleneck. Applicant hasdiscovered that using light emitting diodes (LED's) instead ofconventional diodes in the anti-saturation circuit cause theanti-saturation circuit to have a faster reaction time and fasterrecovery time due to a lower capacitance (e.g., 20 pF) of the LED's. Inthe preferred embodiment, two LED's 70 and 71 are connected in series,with the anode of LED 71 connected to the output of amplifier 60 and thecathode of LED 70 connected to the inverting input of amplifier 60. Theparticular LED's 70 and 71 used output a red glow(aluminum/gallium/arsenide composition) and have a voltage drop of 1.6volts per LED. The red-colored LED's, available from Hewlett-PackardCorporation, provide a specified low capacitance and convenient voltagedrop. Depending upon the desired voltage drop, other types of LED's(e.g., green, yellow, blue) may also be used.

Without the anti-saturation circuit, amplifier 60 would saturate whenits output attempts to exceed 4.5 volts. The LED's 70 and 71 now clampthe output of amplifier 60 to 3.2 volts above the 0.7 volt DC offsetprovided at the junction of resistors R9 and R10. Accordingly, theamplifier 60 does not saturate since its output is limited to a maximumof 3.9 volts.

More or fewer LED's may be connected in series depending upon thedesired maximum output level of amplifier 60.

Accordingly, the center signal 22 may be clipped by the clampingperformed by LED's 70 and 71, and this high analog signal may pin theoutput of A/D converter 58 to its maximum output level (shown in FIG.3). This does not affect the operation of the automatic gain adjustmentcircuitry since the adjusted gain of amplifier 60 causes the fringesignals, and not the center signal 22, output by A/D converter 58 tohave a highest level between 50% and 100% of the maximum output level ofA/D converter 58. For an 8-bit A/D converter 58, the highest digitalvalues for these fringe signals will be forced to be between 128 and255.

In one type of laser 12, the amplitude of the fringe peaks may differ by20% between pulses. This amplitude is not related to the wavelength, butrelated to the energy of the pulse. Thus, maintaining the gain of thefringe signals to produce an A/D converter 58 output between 50% and100% of the maximum output level of A/D converter 58 does not generallyrequire a change in the gain of amplifier 60 from pulse to pulse.

The relatively large amplification of the lower level photodiode 32signals allows more precise measurement of the diameter and width ofselected fringe rings to determine the wavelength of the laser 12 outputand the spectral width of the laser light.

The A/D converter 58 output is applied to an input of microprocessor 56for calculating the diameter of selected fringe rings (or otherdimensions of the fringe rings), using an algorithm, to thus identifythe wavelength of the laser beam. In one method, the position of therising and falling edges of the center single are used to obtain arelative position of the center signal with respect to the PDA 30. Usingthis relative position, the wavelength can be determined to an accuracyof, for example, 5 pm. Measuring the precise diameter of a fringe ringis then used to obtain a wavelength accuracy to within, for example,0.01-0.03 pm. The position of a fringe signal may be obtained bycalculating the positions of the rising and falling edges at one-halfthe peak magnitude and then calculating the midpoint. The distancebetween the rising and falling edges at one-half the peak magnitude isalso used for calculating the spectral width of the laser light. Oneskilled in the art would understand the conversion of thesecharacteristics into a wavelength and spectral width.

Microprocessor 56 then applies control signals to laser wavelengthadjustment circuitry 76 for suitably adjusting the wavelength or othercharacteristic (e.g., spectral width) of laser 12 (step 11). Such laserwavelength adjustment circuitry 76 may be any type of adjustmentcircuitry used in the industry or described in any publication. Inresponse to the wavelength detection signal or other control signal frommicroprocessor 56, laser 12 is adjusted by either mechanically adjustingthe laser structure, such as by means of a stepper motor, or byadjusting certain optical components, or by adjusting a gas mixture inlaser 12. Examples of various tuning methods and devices are describedin the patents previously mentioned, incorporated herein by reference.Typically, the laser wavelength will be slewed up or down untilmicroprocessor 56 detects the wavelength or other characteristic meets adesired criteria. Accordingly, microprocessor 56 may simply output an upor down control signal to adjustment circuitry 76.

Microprocessor 56 may also be programmed to determine the energy levelof each pulse as well as the spectral width (based on the width of thefringe signals) of each pulse for use in characterizing the performanceof the laser.

FIG. 4 illustrates in greater detail a variable resistor network 78connected between nodes A and C in FIG. 1. The variable resistance inFIG. 4 adjusts both the input resistance and the feedback resistance toamplifier 60 to provide gains of 1, 1.4, 1.8, 2.2, 2.6, 3.0, 3.4, 3.8,and five times each of these gains.

Resistors R4 and R7 are fixed. The values of each of the resistors areidentified in FIG. 4.

The effective resistance between nodes A and B is controlled byselectively coupling one or more of the resistors R5A, R5B, and R5C inparallel with resistor R4 via a switching transistor 80, 81, and 82. Onecan easily calculate the various equivalent resistances for the variableresistor R5 necessary to generate the desired gain of amplifier 60.

Transistor 64 is controlled to switch resistor R8 in parallel withresistor R7 to decrease the feedback resistance to one-fifth of thevalue of resistor R7. This attenuates the gain to one-fifth of theprevious gain, assuming the states of the other switching transistorsremain unchanged.

The various transistors in FIG. 4 are controlled by the outputs ofdifferential amplifier 84-87. Amplifiers 84-86 have an inverting inputcoupled to a 1 volt signal obtained from a divided 5 volt power supplysource, and amplifier 87 has its noninverting terminal coupled to the 1volt signal. A control signal of either 0 or 5 volts is applied to arespective non-inverting input terminal of amplifiers 84-86 and theinverting terminal of amplifier 87 to apply either a high logic levelvoltage or a low logic voltage to the control terminals of the varioustransistors. Bus 90 carries these four control signals frommicroprocessor 56 or another gain control source.

In one embodiment, the various resistors are switched to increase ordecrease the gain incrementally between 1 and 19 in accordance with a4-bit code until the peak fringe signals generate an output of A/Dconverter 58 between 50% and 100% of its maximum output level.Consequently, when the feedback system 10 is initially setting the gain,it will take a number of gain adjusting cycles before the gain issuitably adjusted.

The 4-bit code versus gain is shown in FIG. 5. The graph of FIG. 5illustrates that amplifier 60 has a dual slope gain, with a 0.4X gainresolution between the binary control values 0 to 7 and a 2X gainresolution between the control values 8 to 15.

Other gains and other methods of controlling a variable resistance forthe gain adjustment of amplifier 60 may also be used. The controller forcontrolling the switching of the various transistors in FIG. 4 may alsobe a state machine or other “hard-wired” logic circuit, acting as aprocessor.

Any variable gain amplifier may be used instead of the amplifier 60 andvariable resistances.

Microprocessor 56 may be a single microprocessor, a hard-wired logiccircuit, or a more complex system such as one or more personalcomputers.

Accordingly, a feedback system for controlling the wavelength of atunable laser is described which provides automatic gain adjustment aswell as an automatic DC offset in order to more accurately measure thefringe pattern for use in tuning a laser. The system also enables theuse of a less expensive A/D converter and less expensive downstreamprocessing circuitry. Additionally, a very fast anti-saturation clampcircuit has been described using LED's.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shownand described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art thatchanges and modifications may be made without departing from thisinvention in its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims areto encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications asfall within the true spirit and scope of this invention.

1. A circuit within a feedback path of a detection circuit, said circuitcomprising: a first amplifier having an input connected to receive ananalog signal representing a light intensity; a detecting circuit,receiving a first signal corresponding to an output of said firstamplifier, for detecting a second signal a value of said first signalcorresponding to a reference level of a light intensity; aan offsetconverter for converting an output of said detecting circuit to anoffset voltage; and a summing amplifier receiving said offset voltageand a signal corresponding to a light intensity level, an output of saidsumming amplifier outputting at least a predetermined level uponreceiving said reference level of said light intensity, determined bysaid offset voltage being used to achieve said predetermined level, anoutput of said summing amplifier being connected to an the input of saidfirst amplifier.
 2. The circuit of claim 1 further comprising: anintensity analog-to-digital converter connected to receive a signalcorresponding to an output of said first amplifier; a processing circuitconnected to an output of said analog-to-digital converter forgenerating a signal relating to a characteristic of light beingmonitored by said detection circuit.
 3. The circuit of claim 2 furthercomprising laser wavelength adjustment circuitry connected to an theoutput of said processing circuit for adjusting a light outputcharacteristic of a tunable laser based upon the values output from saidanalog-to-digital converter of said signal generated by said processingcircuit.
 4. The circuit of claim 2 wherein said processing circuitdetects a value of a digital output of said analog-to-digital converterand controls a gain of said first amplifier in response to said digitaloutput to cause a peak output of said analog-to-digital converter to bewithin a predetermined range.
 5. The circuit of claim 1 furthercomprising: a photodetector array for detecting a light patterngenerated by a light source; and a sampling circuit connected to anoutput of said photodetector array for generating an analog signalassociated with an output of a respective one or more of saidphotodetectors in said array, said sampling circuit being connected toan input of said summing amplifier.
 6. The circuit of claim 1 furthercomprising: a tunable laser; an interference generator for receiving atleast a portion of light output from said laser and generating aninterference pattern; and a photodetector circuit for sensing saidinterference pattern ad and generating said analog signal representingsaid light intensity.
 7. The circuit of claim 1 wherein said processingcircuit adjusts a gain of said first amplifier to cause a peak output ofsaid analog-to-converter to be above 50% of a maximum output level ofsaid analog-to-digital converter for selected analog signalsrepresenting said light intensity.
 8. The circuit of claim 1 furthercomprising a processor receiving a signal corresponding to an output ofsaid summing amplifier and generating a signal corresponding to saidoffset signal.
 9. The circuit of claim 8 further comprising adigital-to-analog converter for receiving a signal from said processorand generating an analog offset voltage for said summing amplifier. 10.The circuit of claim 9 wherein an output of said digital-to-analogconverter is divided to create said offset voltage.
 11. The circuit ofclaim 1 wherein said reference level is a dark level of said lightintensity.
 12. A method performed by a detection circuit comprising:detecting an output of an analog-to-digital converter representing alight intensity; detecting a digital signal corresponding to a referencelevel of said light intensity; converting said signal corresponding tosaid reference level to an offset voltage; and summing said offsetvoltage and a signal corresponding to a light intensity level togenerate an output having a predetermined level when said referencelevel of said at least said reference level of said light intensity isreceived by said summing amplifier , said output being amplified andconnected to an input of said analog-to digital converter.